"Longing to Return" means "Longing to Return Home". This is true both accounts related in the preface to this song. The first tells of the virtuous Woman of Wei (in ancient times a small kingdom in what is today Henan province), who commits suicide when not allowed to return home;4 the second concerns Shi Chong (249-300), who is credited with having created the poem that provides the lyrics for this song.5 These lyrics express Shi Chong's longing to return to his estate in Heyang (north of the Yellow River, across from Luoyang, also in Henan).

The only other setting for qin of these lyrics is in Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1585), which has the same lyrics but somewhat different music.6 Meanwhile, a Longing to Return Intonation (also pronounced Si Gui Yin but with the character "yin" meaning "intonation") seems to occur only once, in
1557, where it is applied to an unrelated melody also known as Huai Gu Yin.7

Shi Chong's Si Gui Yin Preface says,11"When Chong was young he had great ambition; later he enjoyed taking it easy. (The rest of this account is also copied below almost verbatim in the 1511 preface)

(To this someone, presumably
Guo Maoqian himself, adds):
"But these thoughts of returning (si gui) are to Heyang and so concern a different matter" (than that of the woman who commited suicide because she could not go home).

Yuefu Jieti says,12"Perhaps Liu Xiaowei of Liang's「胡地憑良馬」(the lyrics that begin his poem
below) neatly state the attitude of someone longing to return." (Poem not yet translated; not mentioned in the 1511 preface.)

There is an entry in
Wen Xuan entitled Longing to Return Prelude (Si Gui Yin Xu), by Shi Chong.14 The Yuefu Shiji preface attributed to Shi Chong seems to be a condensed version of this. In the preface Shi Chong, after saying he worked in office for 25 years, describes his estate at Heyang. He then writes that his family had musicians there and that while there he himself enjoyed playing qin and reading books. However, he adds, he is now away from this and longs to return. Having heard a melody called Prelude to Longing to Return, in which men of old expressed the same feelings as his, he decided to write lyrics for the melody. He ends by lamenting that he could not find anyone knowledgeable enough to create a new melody for it, and set it for string and bamboo instruments. What Shi Chong wrote here suggests that whatever string melody he may have found was lost by then.

Perhaps the most consistent conclusion one can draw from all of this is that the original melody concerned a woman of Wei, but then Shi Chong added lyrics about his own longing to return home. However, for this to apply here would require the melody to predate Shi Chong, and there is no evidence for this. So in the end we can only read all the stories, then imagine the actual source of the present melody as well as when and how it came to be paired with these lyrics.

Preface15The preface here follows the same basic outline as in Yuefu Shiji
(q.v.), but omits the Yuefu Jieti comments and shortens some of the others.

According to Qin Cao, There was a virtuous woman of Wei. The king of Shao (Zhao) was betrothed to her, but before she arrived the king died. The heir apparent said, "I have heard that
Duke Huan of Qi having Wei Ji (Wei as his concubine?) became all powerful. This woman of Wei is virtuous; I would like to keep her with me." His prime minister said, "This is impermissible. If she is virtuous it must be that she will not go along with what we say; if she goes along with what we say it must be that she is not so virtuous." The heir apparent went ahead and kept her, with the result that she was not obedient. She was detained deep inside the palace, where she played qin and created this (melody), then strangled herself and died.

Shi Chong of Jin said, "In ancient times there was a Si Gui Yin to be played on strings but without lyrics, so I have created lyrics for it." But these thoughts of returning (si gui) are to Heyang and so concern a different matter" (than the suicide of this girl, who could not go home),

The Qin Lun of Xie Xiyi (Xie Zhuang) said, "In olden days there was a Li Ju Cao." It did not concern the Woman of Wei and we cannot grasp it.

Music and lyrics 16One section, with a largely syllabic setting of the
Yuefu Shiji poem by Shi Chong. Except for one 5-character line, the lyric structure mixes lines of 3+3 with lines of 7 syllables. A repeated punctuation mark here means that the tablature says, "再作 play again". There is no indication of whether the lyrics should be sung during the repeated musical phrase.

1. (QQJC I/307)
Longing to Return Prelude (思歸引 Si Gui Yin)My understanding of the Shi Chong poem and its background was greatly assisted by "The Estate of Shi Chong", an article sent to me in November 2011 by David Knechtges and subsequently published, as "Estate Culture in Early Medieval China: The Case of Shi Chong", in Early Medieval China: a Sourcebook, Columbia University Press, 2012, edited by Wendy Swartz, Robert Ford Campany, Yang Lu and Jessey Choo.

10734.260 思歸引 Si Gui Yin says it is a qin melody also called
Li Ju Cao (離拘操 Leave Detention Melody); there is no mention of a 離鸞操 Li Luan Cao. It quotes the Yuefu Shiji preface (which gave Li Ju Cao as an alternate title), Qin Cao, and another poem of this title said to be in the Old Yuefu. Si Gui Yin is in various melody lists, such as here, as well as being the fourth prelude in Qin Cao.

Some of these are also in the Qin Yuan Yao Lü. However, the only Longing to Return Intonation (思歸吟 Si Gui Yin) I have found is the melody mentioned
below.
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2.Tuning and modeTaigu Yiyin does not group pieces by mode. My transcription treats the first string as do (1). This makes melody largely pentatonic (using the notes do re mi so la, i.e., 1 2 3 5 6), though fa (4) occurs 3 times. Most phrases end on 5 or 2, making these the primary tonal centers. However, in the closing harmonics the tonal center changes to 1. The mode closest to having these characteristics is zhi diao.
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3.Shi Chong at Jingu? (full scroll)
The image, taken from an online auction site, identifies it as 白色緞顧繡石崇金谷園圖軸
清嘉慶 (1796-1821) an anonymous early 19th century painting of Shi Chong at Jin Gu, his more famous estate. There have been many paintings of Shi Chong's estate.
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4.衛女 Woman of Wei衛女 34896.8 Young woman from Wei 衛賢女 34896.xxx (Virtuous Woman of Wei). In my commentary on the entry in Qin Shi #52 I have not been able completely to clarify her details.
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5.石崇 Shi ChongA wealthy man of Henan with two famous villas, one in 金谷 Jin Gu for luxurious banquets, and a more personal one at 河陽 Heyang (north of the Yellow River). See further.
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6.Tracing Si Gui Yin (see tracing chart)
Zha's Guide 14/146/253 lists this only here and in 1585, but it is also used as the title of at least one version of Huai Gu Yin (next).
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7.Longing to Return Intonation (思歸吟 Si Gui YinThis piece is better known as Cherish Antiquity Intonation (懷古吟 Huai Gu Yin), though in its earliest known publication it was called Calmly Expansive Intonation (夷曠吟 Yikuang Yin). It is discussed here under the Huai Gu Yin of 1525.
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9.Leave Detention Melody (離拘操 Li Ju Cao)43079.xxx. The 拘 ju in the title is the same word used to describe the Woman of Wei's situation in the palace: 拘於深宮 she was detained deep inside it. Presumably, having played "Longing to Return (Home)" on the qin she left this detention by hanging herself. This title can be found in some melody lists, e.g., here, but it is not in Qin Cao and there is no reason to assume it had any melodic connection to the present Si Gui Yin,
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10.Qin Cao Preface in Yuefu ShijiSi Gui Yin is one of the Nine Preludes in the Qin Cao attributed to Cai Yong. The preface in the Qin Cao as included in TKW Qin Fu, p. 744, is almost the same, adding at the front "衛女之所作也 it was created by Wei Nü" (see Qin Shi #52.); a double column commentary then says, "一曰離物操。案古交苑蔡邕琴賦注琴操有離鸞。離物疑即離鸞之譌。", i.e., that it was also called Li Wu Cao but that Liwu was a mistake for Li Luan. Li Luan is actually a title listed in Qin Li as well as in an alternate list of Qin Cao.

The original text of the preface in Wen Xuan is as follows:
思歸引序
余少有大志。誇邁流俗。弱冠登朝。歷位二十五。年五十以事去官。晚節更樂放逸。篤好林藪。遂肥遁於河陽別業。其制宅也。卻阻長堤。前臨清渠。柏木幾於萬株。江水周於捨下。有觀閣池沼。多養魚鳥。家素習技。頗有秦趙之聲。出則以游目弋釣為事。入則有琴書之娛。又好服食嚥氣。志在不朽。傲然有凌雲之操。歘復見牽羈。婆娑於九列。困於人間煩黷。常思歸而永嘆。尋覽樂篇有思歸引。儻古人之心有同於今。故制此曲。此曲有弦無歌。今為作歌辭以述余懷。恨時無知音者。令造新聲而播於絲竹也。

16.Original lyricsRegarding the arrangement of the lines after the present one, the overall rhythming pattern of these lyrics suggests that the last six phrases of the melody should considered as [3+3] x 3 . By tying this with the previous 7-character phrase it is possible to arrange the musical rhythm so that the melody ends with a neat 4-line passage that follows the rhyme, as follows:
終日周覽樂無方。
登雲閣，列姬姜。
拊絲竹，叩宮商。
宴華池，酌玉觴。
However, the musical phrasing in the 1511 tablature, with the last three phrases played in 泛音 harmonics, the tonal center changing there to do, and the fingering paralleling that of the three previous phrases, suggests that 終日周覽樂無方 was intended to connect musically with the previous line, and then the melody should end with two lines arranged as [3+3+3] x 2 , as follows:
登雲閣，列姬姜。拊絲竹，
叩宮商。宴華池，酌玉觴。
Qin tablature indicates only how to play the notes, thereby specifying pitch but not directly indicating note values (rhythm), which would have been learned from the teacher. Based largely on my own understanding of the lyrics (there is more flexibility in interpreting the music) my tendency is to prefer the former interpretation.